Authorities have said a reason for the high death toll, where more than half of those on board died, was passengers near the front of the plane collected their carry on luggage rather than exiting quickly.

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the Transportation Safety Board had made that recommendation nearly two years prior.

In a May 2017 report on the Air Canada Flight 624 that crash-landed in Halifax in March 29, 2015, the safety board ask Transport Canada to “requires that passenger safety briefings include clear direction to leave all carry-on baggage behind during an evacuation.”

At the time, the safety board noted that Transport Canada “plans no regulatory action.”

“The federal government cannot wait for another tragedy to happen. Transport Canada must act now. At the time of the Halifax crash, all 132 passengers and 5 crew members made it out safely, but it will not always be the case if the carry-on retrieving issue is not resolved on all Canadian carriers,” Lesosky said.